In certain architectural styles, such as the well-known Spanish/Mediterranean styles widely used for both commercial and residential buildings in the southwestern United States, an exterior cementious final coat is employed. The cementious outer layer may be of traditional stucco, adobe or more modern variants. During the finishing process, the corners (whether inside or outside) at which the cementious material is applied are more or less "rounded" to obtain a relatively mechanically strong finish in the corner region and also for purely aesthetic purposes. As to the latter, there has been a tendency to employ somewhat larger radii to achieve a pleasing effect in such substyles as "Santa Fe".
Similarly, the interior walls of structures have corners which may be finished with such broadly defined cementious materials as plaster, a plaster substitute, drywall finishing compound, etc. and in which, again, a rounded (i.e., "radiused") effect is sought. As to the use of radiused corners in building interiors, such use is not at all restricted to buildings in which cementious outer finishes are employed, but, in fact enjoys wide appreciation in all types of building construction.
As those skilled in the art will readily understand, achieving a uniformly radiused finish, whether within or without a building and whether an inside corner, outside corner, edge, etc., the finishing technique is extraordinarily difficult to achieve and requires great skill on the part of the workman. As the radii become larger than a fraction of an inch, the skilled workman must devise a tool to assist him in obtaining the desired uniform result. In some instances, trowels have been reshaped to have working edges somewhat conforming to the desired radius. Other expedients have included undertaking to maintain the curvature of a bent piece of cardboard to the desired radius as it is drawn along the region to be radiused. Neither of these approaches has been particularly successful. In both instances, the tool must be carefully held at an appropriate angle throughout the finishing process along the entire length of a corner or the like to be finished; further, the same angle must be carefully maintained from corner to corner. If it is not, the radius achieved will not be the same from point to point, and the resulting finish will not be satisfactory. Further, in the case of the cardboard tool expedient, it lacks sturdiness and is difficult to hold.
Therefore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that it would be highly desirable to provide a special tool for finishing corners, edges and the like with a cementious material which will greatly facilitate the efficiency and uniformity by which such corners, edges and the like may be finished with a cementious material in a radiused configuration; and it is to this end that the present invention is directed.